How Microsoft May Get Some Relief In EU’s DMA Crackdown

A few of Microsoft Corp’s services may be exempted for the time being from the impending European Union’s crackdown on Big Tech under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), claims a new report by Bloomberg. The services that may get a reprieve are Microsoft’s internet search engine Bing, Microsoft Edge web browser and the tech giant’s Advertising services.

According to the report, the EU watchdogs didn’t find them “dominant enough” to be restricted under antitrust rules. Hence, EU antitrust officials may just postpone any kind of regulatory sentence on the above-mentioned Microsoft services for the time being. EU has already exempted Apple’s iMessage service from the Digital Markets Act.

EU’s Digital Markets Act: What It Means For Big Tech Firms

The European Union is looking to tighten its noose on the market domination tactics employed by Big Tech firms like Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Bytedance, etc, with the DMA, expected to be passed in March.

For example, the new global market rules will apply to Apple’s iOS platform, the Apple App Store and Safari browser. Though Microsoft’s Bing, Edge and Advertising services may have survived the DMA crackdown for the time being, the Digital Markets Act will apply to the software giant’s Windows OS for PCs and the LinkedIn platform for professionals.

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EU To Keep A Check On Big Tech’s Market Domination

With the new set of regulations, the EU aims to keep a tight leash on how the Big Tech companies function. The aim is to prevent them from abusing their dominance in the world market. Under the DMA rules, Amazon, Microsoft, Google or any other Big Tech company will not be allowed to combine personal data across their services. They cannot use any data collected via third party services to compete against them. Big Tech firms will also have to allow users to download apps via any rival digital platform.

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An earlier report by Bloomberg said that the EU watchdogs gave a DMA reprieve to Apple’s iMessage service as they didn’t find it to be an “important gateway” for business users. Had it been the case that iMessage was controlled under the DMA, Apple could have been forced to allow iMessage to work with rival organizations’ messaging services like Meta’s WhatsApp.

The European Union is also reportedly looking to investigate Microsoft’s $13 billion deal with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.

• Winner of The 21st Century Emily Dickinson Award for his debut book ‘The Heart of Heartbeats’, Utkarsh found his calling to be a writer while studying engineering and has been writing professionally for over six years now. After completing… read more